Smart Travel: Upgrade Your Getaways
When and How to Transfer Credit Card Rewards Points To Get The Most Value
Wed, 23 Apr 2025
Learn when it’s worth transferring credit card points — and how to avoid costly mistakes that waste your rewards. When should you transfer your credit card points to an airline or hotel loyalty program? What are your options if you no longer want to pay the annual fee on a travel card you’ve held for years? Hosts Meghan Coyle and Sally French discuss how to get the most value from your travel rewards and what to do when a credit card no longer fits your needs. But first, they break down the latest travel headlines, including free Wi-Fi rolling out on American, Delta, and United flights, how to prepare for the fast-approaching Real ID deadline, a $40 status match deal between Southwest and Frontier, and how demand for international flights and premium seats is shaping airline strategies. Then, Meghan and Sally discuss point transfer strategies, with tips and tricks on comparing portal vs. partner redemptions, understanding transfer ratios and bonuses, and choosing the right partner based on your destination. Then, Meghan and Sally discuss how to keep your credit history intact when a card’s annual fee no longer feels worth it. They explore how to downgrade a card, when to ask for a retention offer, and what to expect when calling your issuer to explore product changes. This show references limited-time offers from the following programs: Chase Ultimate Rewards® (expires April 30, 2025) American Express Membership Rewards (expires April 30, 2025) Citi ThankYou® Points (expires May 17, 2025) For up-to-date offers, see NerdWallet’s list of current transfer bonuses: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/credit-card-transfer-bonuses Card benefits, terms and fees can change. For the most up-to-date information about cards mentioned in this episode, read our review: American Express Gold Card Review: https://www.nerdwallet.com/reviews/credit-cards/american-express-premier-rewards-gold Here are links to resources mentioned in this episode: The Real ID Alternatives Travelers Might Already Have: https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/the-real-id-alternatives-travelers-might-already-have How Much Are Travel Points and Miles Worth in 2025? https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/travel/airline-miles-and-hotel-points-valuations Sign up for NerdWallet’s new free travel newsletter by April 30, 2025, and you’ll be entered to win a FREE 1:1 travel strategy coaching session: https://www.nerdwallet.com/travel-newsletter In their conversation, the Nerds discuss: credit card point transfers, best travel transfer partners, airline point transfer bonuses, hotel point transfer bonuses, how to downgrade a credit card, keeping credit history, avoiding credit card annual fees, travel portal vs transfer partner, how much are credit card points worth, best points redemptions, credit card reward strategies, transfer bonus deadlines, NerdWallet point valuations, what is a transfer ratio, credit card sweet spots, how to book flights with points, hotel loyalty programs, how to book hotels with points, airline alliances and point transfers, free airline Wi-Fi trends, Real ID flight deadline, Points Path Chrome plugin, and award flight search tools.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts of this podcast episode?
Sally, let's play a game. Tell me if you think the following statement is a truth or myth.
Oh, you love podcast games. Let's do it.
Okay, the best way to use your credit card points is to transfer them to airline or hotel loyalty programs instead of booking travel through your credit card's travel portal.
Well, I want to say trick question. This one depends. Like, I feel like almost all my answers. You have to know which transfers actually make sense because not all of them do.
That's why listeners have us. We're here to give you the shortcuts on which transfer partners are worth booking with to save you some points.
Welcome to Smart Travel, a deep dive into the tips, tools, and tactics to maximize your travel dollars. I'm Megan Coyle.
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Chapter 2: What are the latest travel news and updates affecting travelers?
And I'm Sally French, and we're the travel nerds ready to help you plan your next big trip. Maybe on points? If you've heard that you should transfer your points for travel redemptions, listen up. It can save you thousands of points, but you have to know which transfer partners you have access to and which ones offer the best rates.
because not all of them do. Big hint, we'll go over some possible good transfer partners this month in the news, but really quick, let's do our usual disclaimer. We will talk about a few credit card companies that are NerdWallet partners in this episode, but that does not influence how we discuss them.
The benefits, terms, and fees mentioned were accurate at the time of posting, but things can change. Some offers may have expired by the time you're listening. For the latest details, follow the links in the episode description.
One thing we'll talk about later in the episode is that there are these special deals called transfer bonuses that can make transferring to a partner even cheaper.
And one of those special deals right now is a transfer bonus going between Chase Ultimate Rewards to IHG. That's one of the hotel loyalty programs that has brands like Intercontinental, Hotel Indigo, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and one of my personal favorites, Kempton. That one is an 80% transfer bonus.
So if you need 180,000 points for an awards day at one of these properties, you would only have to transfer 100,000 points. The other 80,000 would show up in your IHG account as the bonus.
That's a lot of points. But this transfer bonus is only running through April 30th, 2025. So if you're listening to this episode after that date, check NerdWallet's list of current transfer bonuses for others. We'll link to that in the episode description. That's often where I start when I'm looking to use points for a trip.
And don't worry, if you're not a Chase cardholder, there are other great bonuses out there. One of the best ones right now is a 20% transfer bonus from Amex to Aeromexico Club Premier or Etihad Guest. Both of those also end April 30th, 2025.
And over in city land, cardholders with city thank you points can transfer to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club with a 30% bonus. And they have a bit longer to do that. That one ends May 17th, 2025.
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Chapter 3: What transfer bonuses are currently available and how can they save points?
So your city might be this month or next month if Air France or KLM flies there. Another great way to save on points when you're transferring is to book during a transfer bonus. So these are usually like a month long or six weeks. And I'll just use March as an example. Last month, there was a 50% transfer bonus to Marriott from Chase Ultimate Rewards.
The Marriott transfer ratio is typically one to one. So with the bonus, if you transferred 100,000 Chase points, you get 150,000 Marriott points in your Marriott account.
So we mentioned like you want to go for 1.5 cents to be a great redemption. But when you have these transfer bonuses, that can make something that used to be a so-so transfer partner, like I'm looking at you, Marriott, and it can turn it into a much better one. Of course, this is just for a limited time. So we have done some nice work for you.
NerdWallet has a page with all the current transfer bonuses. It also shows some transfer bonuses we've seen in the past to help inform maybe your speculative trading. And we'll link to that in the show notes.
We also have guides to the best and worst transfer partners of each of the major banks in the show notes too. So we have a lot of resources for you.
The, I think, key takeaway here is even with a transfer bonus, do the math because it is not always a good idea to transfer points.
So Sally, do you have any strategies for finding out what the best transfers are?
I will say, even though I write these pages on NerdWallet, I am also kind of lazy. And I do so many flight searches on Google Flights. And with that, I use a plugin called Points Payment. So with Points Path, you install this plugin and it will show points prices on Google Flights.
And not just that, it has this really cool feature where it'll actually tell you if it thinks it's a better deal to use points versus cash because sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. I'm pretty sure I told you about Points Path. Yeah. Okay, I'm stealing what credit should go to you. You're right. You're right. Thank you for showing that to me.
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